Post Adoption Resources publication

DNA testing and adoption

by birthlink_2020 | 9 April 2021 | News | 0 Comments

Have you considered using DNA testing to assist with identifying family? There are now a host of commercial companies offering ‘genealogy’ DNA test kits which can connect you to your birth family and more distant cousins. These tests are so advanced that they can...

Adoption tracing services are patchy at best, but we can help.

by Audrey Darling | 3 May 2023 | News | 0 Comments

The adoptions that took place between the 1950s and 1970s often resulted in babies being unnecessarily taken away from unmarried mothers with consequent life-long pain. The First Minister had now given an official apology to those affected with an indication of...

Challenging time of year for mothers whose children have been adopted

by Audrey Darling | 22 December 2022 | News | 0 Comments

For mothers whose children have been adopted, this time of year is a challenge. Xmas and New Year bring expectations of togetherness, celebrations of birth and renewal, and the opportunity to be in touch with and spend time with our families. Xmas stories are often...

Adoption Week to focus on connections with past, present and future family

by Audrey Darling | 1 November 2022 | News | 0 Comments

By the time this article appears the UK’s National Adoption Week in October will be over. However we could not let it pass without drawing attention to this year’s welcome innovation.

Autumn Bulletin

by Audrey Darling | 25 October 2022 | News | 0 Comments

Throughout this Autumn we are celebrating our one hundred and eleventh year with much activity relating to national adoption weeks in October (UK) and November (Scotland). This makes for a handy 111/11 signature to the events. Keep an eye on social media for...

How Tracy Beaker novels offer great insight into the world of child adoption.

by Audrey Darling | 26 September 2022 | News | 0 Comments

There are very few works of fiction (books, TV, cinema) that treat adoption sympathetically. Often we are treated to plot twists involving the sudden discovery of being adopted, the dangerous arrival of a birth mother in someone’s life, or early paternity coming home...

Should be more support for adopted young people who want to contact birth relatives, says report.

by Audrey Darling | 24 August 2022 | News | 0 Comments

Babies and infants are no longer the majority of children adopted. Most children adopted today are older, have been in care because of assessments of parental mistreatment and will have ongoing relationships with members of their families of birth. These...

Podcast tells gripping story of Esther’s journey to find her birth mother

by Audrey Darling | 9 June 2022 | News, Uncategorised | 0 Comments

In April Spotify released an eight-episode podcast entitled ‘Looking for Esther’ and it tells the story of Esther Robertson, who was born in 1961 and is the daughter of a white Edinburgh woman and a black American serviceman who was stationed in Kirknewton.

110 years by Gary Clapton

by Audrey Darling | 14 February 2022 | News | 0 Comments

We are one of the oldest Edinburgh charities in existence. We’ve been stymied from celebrating our 110-year anniversary so often in the last year that we’ve decided to go ahead this month with as much “virtual” activity as possible.

‘Forgotten Scots’, made to give babies up for adoption in 1960’s

by Audrey Darling | 24 January 2022 | News | 0 Comments

A 79-year-old mother from the United States has launched a desperate search for her son she gave up for adoption in Scotland in the 1960s and has highlighted the plight of the “forgotten people” who were separated from their children at birth given social attitudes of...

Piecing together of identity for adopted people like dismantling a brick wall

by Audrey Darling | 14 December 2021 | News | 0 Comments

First, when a child leaves their birth family for an adoptive family, their name is changed and original birth certificate (Original Birth Entry - OBE) is annotated “adopted”.